Water
bottling firms yet to get ISI markChandigarh, June 7With the June 29 deadline
prohibiting sale of packed drinking water or mineral water without the
ISI mark approaching, not even a single North Indian company bottling
drinking water has been granted the ISI mark so far.

GIC to
decide on VST offer next weekMumbai, June 7General Insurance Corporation (GIC)
today said it will decide on accepting one of the two open offers for
VST Ltd made by ITC subsidiary Russell Credit and Brightstar Investments
only next week, even as Life Insurance Corporation of India top
officials continued discussions about responding to bids.

U.S. software giant Microsoft Corp. launched its first commercial application of interactive TV software in Portugal on Thursday.
It allows subscribers to receive e-mail, bank, shop, place bets and play games through a set top box as well as recording live programs, personalized viewing and displaying live programming frame by frame. — Reuters

Wipro
opens office in DubaiDubai, June 7Wipro Infotech has opened an office
in the Dubai Internet City (DIC) to target the lucrative Middle East
region.

BPCL to
retain 450 cr from bonds issueNew Delhi, June 7Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd
(BPCL) will retain Rs 450 crore out of the Rs 1175 crore it raised from
the non-convertible debenture issue.

The new Near Zero Growth technology tyre by Michelin, which will be used in future on the Concorde supersonic airliner, is presented to the
Press in Paris on Thursday. The technology
proposed for Concorde's main wheels is based on "high-modulus" materials which reduce structural deformation.
— Reuters

Step up
research in biotech: NitishShimla, June 7Mr Nitish Kumar, Agriculture
Minister, has underlined the need for stepping up the research effort in
the field of biotechnology for preserving the country’s vast
biodiversity and facing the challenge of the new patent regime under
which “knowledge” would be traded like commodities.

‘IT to
bounce back with a bang’New Delhi, June 7The Information Technology
sector, which has been viewed with suspicion with the dotcom burst,
would bounce back with a bang after three months, said the
internationally noted IT research firm, Gartner.

Guidelines
for export promotionLudhiana, June 7The Ministry of Commerce and
Industry has formulated guidelines for the expanded scheme, “Export
enhancement and export studies market access initiative” with the
emphasis on exports, the need to promote international trade and give
thrust to the export promotion efforts.

Wagon
industry in crisisNew Delhi, June 7The wagon industry is railing
through crisis due to lack of orders by the Indian Railways, the trade
unions cutting across party lines said, and urged the Prime Minister
and the Railway Minister to immediately release orders for the
industry.

Chandigarh, June 7
With the June 29 deadline prohibiting sale of packed drinking water or mineral water without the ISI mark approaching, not even a single North Indian company bottling drinking water has been granted the ISI mark so far.

Enquiries reveal that the Northern Regional Office of the Bureau of Indian Standards, 25 applications for the grant of the ISI mark for packed drinking water have been received. Of these nine are from Haryana alone while there are eight applications from Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh. One application has been received from Lucknow while the remaining three are from Himachal Pradesh.

Of the total three ISI marks granted for the
supply of packed mineral water from the northern region, all are from Himachal Pradesh. In fact, the country’s first ISI mark for the packed mineral water went to a Himachal company.

It may be recalled here that following numerous complaints from consumers about the supply of substandard packed mineral water and drinking water, and mushrooming of companies marketing even “tap water”, the Union Ministry of Health issued a notification giving the companies engaged in marketing packed natural mineral water and drinking water to get ISI mark from the Burea of Indian Standards latest by March 29 this year.

Majority of the samples of both the natural mineral water and the drinking water analysed by different laboratories throughout the country failed to meet the ISI norms. Even the bottled water supplied in the prestigious Shatabadi Express and Rajdhani Express trains also failed to meet the ISI norms. After the June 29 deadline, it would be the duty of the State Health Departments to regulate the sale of packaged drinking water and natural mineral water.

On numerous representations from the bottling companies that to get ISI mark was a long drawn process, the Ministry of Health had extended the deadline till June 29. The extended deadline was valid for only companies which had already applied for the ISI certification.

According to the Bureau of Indian Standards, the
standard for ISI mark on drinking water necessitates that thermotolerant bacteria (Escherichia coli), Coliform bacteria, Faecal streptococci, Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa shall be absent in any 250 ml sample tested in accordance with the ISI norms. Besides suphite reducing anaerobes shall be absent in 50 ml sample.

As far as aerobic microbial count is concerned, the standard provides that the total viable colony count shall not exceed 100 per ml at 20 degrees Celsius to 22 degrees Celsius in 72 hours on agar-agar or agar-gelatin mixture, and 20 per ml at 37 degree Celsius in 24 hours on agar-agar when tested in accordance with the IS norms.

The water shall be packed in clean, colourless, transparent and tamperproof bottles or containers, made of polythene or polyvinyl chloride conforming to ISI standards or sterile glass bottle suitable for preventing possible adulteration or contamination of the water.

The standard also lays stiff stipulations with regard to collection, transportation, processing of water to
be bottled, requirements of buildings for ISI marked bottling centre, hygienic facilities, cleaning and disinfection, exclusion of animals, pest control, storage of hazardous substances, personal hygiene and health requirement of personnel employed in the work.

Sources said that the Northern Region office is in the process of issuing its first ISI mark in Packaged Drinking Water.

There are similar strict parameters for the ISI marking of the Packaged Natural Mineral Water.

So packaged water has to be either ISI marked drinking water or natural mineral water. Most of the microbial and aerobic microbial counts for the natural mineral water are the same as of drinking water.

Mumbai, June 7
General Insurance Corporation (GIC) today said it will decide on accepting one of the two open offers for VST Ltd made by ITC subsidiary Russell Credit and Brightstar Investments only next week, even as Life Insurance Corporation of India top officials continued discussions about responding to bids.

General Insurance Corporation (GIC) sources said, “the decision about accepting either of the open offers — Russell Credit’s at Rs 125 per share emphasising the
management experience for the tobacco company and Rs 151 per share offered by Brightstar Investments Ltd — will be made only next week”.

“We are in dilemma over the offer price vis-a-vis the management and track record issue. Our decisions on such investments are generally taken one or two days before the close, which in this case is June 13”, they added.

GIC co-ordinates its investment decisions with LIC when “both of us are involved” as institutional investors, the sources said.

LIC and GIC together hold about 17.7 per cent stake in VST.

Brightstar, on June 3, had hiked both the offer price and offer size to Rs 151 per share (Rs 118 per share earlier) and 30 per cent (20 per cent) of the VST’s outstanding equity capital.

Prior to this, Russell Credit, ITC subsidiary, had increased the open offer price for 20 per cent from Rs 120 per share to Rs 125 per share.

Asked if BAT had all along been behind the open offer, whose size was doubled to Rs 70 crore on the last day against Rs 35 crore envisaged initially, John Band said, “Neither BAT nor any other investor is behind the Brightstar bid for VST Industries”.
PTI

Dubai, June 7
Wipro Infotech has opened an office in the Dubai Internet City (DIC) to target the lucrative Middle East region.

Wipro follows in the footsteps of Satyam and Infosys that have already opened offices in the UAE to tap the vast Middle East region, which is seeing an explosion of opportunities in the sector.

Suresh Vaswani, President of Wipro Infotech, said the move to set up the company's regional operations at DIC is part of the expansion strategy, which will see Wipro Infotech branching out into the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East markets.

"We chose DIC as our regional headquarters because of the synergy of missions between the two organizations," he said. The DIC operations are also likely to look at Wipro's businesses in South Africa in the near future, he said, adding that investments will increase.

Vaswani said Wipro's entry into the Middle East will help consolidate the company's position in the global IT marketplace. "The Middle East is a leading edge IT market and Wipro, with its strengths in technology and services, is the ideal player to serve this market," he said.

Mohammed Al Gergawi, Director General of Dubai Technology, e-Commerce and Media Free Zone Authority, said Wipro's choice of DIC as the company's launch pad to the regional market is another example of the free zone's efforts to attract global leaders.

Welcoming the Indian IT company, Gergawi said DIC's strategy has been to attract global technology leaders to ensure Dubai's pre-eminence as the new economy hub of the region. At present the Middle East contributes around 1.5 percent to 2 per cent to Satyam's total revenues. In Dubai, Satyam has 70 professionals working on various projects and in all 110 are working in projects in the Middle East.
IANS

New Delhi, June 7
Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) will retain Rs 450 crore out of the Rs 1175 crore it raised from the non-convertible debenture issue.

The issue, which closed late last month, had a target size of Rs 250 crore. The company will retain Rs 350 crore offering a coupon rate of 9.95 per cent and another Rs 100 crore for a coupon rate of 9.90 per cent, company sources said.

The issue offered a book-building yield band of 9.85-10.35 per cent.

At the 9.85 per cent level, the issue received bids totalling Rs 280 crore, at 9.95 (Rs 345 crore) and at 10 per cent (Rs 550 crore). BPCL had the right to retain over-subscription up to an unspecified amount through the greenshoe option.

Shimla, June 7
Mr Nitish Kumar, Agriculture Minister, has underlined the need for stepping up the research effort in the field of biotechnology for preserving the country’s vast biodiversity and facing the challenge of the new patent regime under which “knowledge” would be traded like commodities.

Presiding over the inaugural function of the three-day “Shimla knowledge. com, 2001” business summit here today, he said India was already acknowledged as information technology “super power” in the world and by taking lead in the “biotechnology” it could become an “economic power” to reckon with.

Besides proper documentation of country’s herbs and other valuable plant resources, there was an urgent need to go for genetically modified plants so that farmers at the grassroot could benefit from the ongoing biotech revolution.

Private companies could play a vital role by taking up the high investment genetic engineering projects. The project to work out genomics of maize alone would require over Rs 1,500 crore and that of rice Rs 800 crore. The investment was rather high but the benefit the country would reap by way of increase in yield would be manifold.

Inaugurating the summit Mr P.K. Dhumal said Himachal Pradesh was a treasure house of medicinal plants but no systematic effort had been made to evaluate their quality, quantity and regeneration under natural conditions. Belatedly scientists had started working in this area and about 700 species had been documented. The information thus gained would help in
deverfication of farming and conservation in these species. Documentation was essential for commercial exploitation of bioresources.

Dr Rajan Sushant said the IT and BT would help the country regain its position as the “Vishva Guru”. While it was already taken the lead in the field of IT, nothing could stop it from becoming a BT super power, given its vast bioresources and scientific manpower.

Mr A.K. Goswami, the Chief Secretary, while presenting the theme paper, spoke about the vast scope of investment in the area of IT, BT and entertainment, which was closely related to tourism.

Mr Nitish Kumar also inaugurated the international exhibition in which some leading IT companies are participating.

Meanwhile, Mr Nitish Kumar said the developed countries should cut export subsidies on their products to provide a level playfield to others for competing under the WTO agreement.

Mr Nitish Kumar, who was talking to mediapersons after a meeting of the standing committee of the Agriculture Ministry here, said providing export subsidy was not a fair trade regime and India is demanding that such subsidies should be discontinued.

Most of the criticism of the WTO was because of ignorance. The government has reviewed the agreement and demanded more concessions.

The implications of the WTO on agriculture have been discussed threadbare and the people will be educated about it. A workshop on the issue will be held in Punjab on July 4.

New Delhi, June 7
The Information Technology sector, which has been viewed with suspicion with the dotcom burst, would bounce back with a bang after three months, said the internationally noted IT research firm, Gartner.

“The US economic slowdown would be over by next quarter and the vast business opportunity for the IT firms would again open up,” said Mr Partha Iyengar, country manager of Gartner.

He said the economic recession has also provided an immense opportunity for the Indian IT companies to project India as a major off shore development site for quality product.

“Indian IT companies used to compete earlier on price, but now they are competing on quality with other majors,” he said.

Pointing to the study carried out by the oldest technology consultancy firm, he said there has been no IT cost reduction by global firms despite the economic recession.

This implys that IT is being seen as a way to reduce business costs overall, as well as critical to growing business, he said.

Mr Partha said the Gartner is carrying out an indepth study of the Indian IT scenario and would soon come out with the results.

“One positive trend, which is emerging from the study is that IT in the country would bounce back in the coming months and the fear psychosis which has set in following the dotcom burst would be over,” he said.

The Gartner, which carried out the global CIO study found that the corporate leaders are focusing their efforts on providing executive leadership, on building organisational capabilities, on demonstrating and delivering value for the US dollar and on delivering e-enabled capabilities.

Mr Partha said “the trends observed in the Indian market in the last two years of IT becoming a board-room issue versus a back room issue will continue unabated and enterprises will continue to increase IT spending levels to achieve business benefit.”

He said the business environment is getting tougher and IT investments are essential for enterprise to participate in the connected economy.

“While we have seen a temporary slowdown because of the double impact of the dotcom bust led stock market meltdown, and the subsequent US slowdown, it would be unfortunate for the Indian economy if this were to completely derail the momentum Indian companies had attained in the last couple of years, in terms of aggressively using IT to drive business competitiveness,” he said.

The Gartner is holding a summit in August this year which would focus on exploiting IT for business transformations. The summit to be attended by leaders in the technology sector would give a perspective of the future trends in the IT scenario.

Ludhiana, June 7
The Ministry of Commerce and Industry has formulated guidelines for the expanded scheme, “Export enhancement and export studies market access initiative” with the emphasis on exports, the need to promote international trade and give thrust to the export promotion efforts.

The government has earmarked a sum of Rs 200 crore for the scheme and the guidelines will be discussed on June 12 in Delhi and steps taken to implement it.

The objectives of the scheme are to identify the priorities of research and to sponsor research studies consistent with the priorities, arranging far wide discussions on the results of such studies, supporting the EPCs/trade promotion organisations for market survey, studies for selected products in the chosen countries to generate data for promotion of exports from India, assist exporters and EPCs for participation in international departmental store promotion programmes, intensive publicity camapigns and participation in informational trade fairs seminars, buyer seller meets for a few selected focus products in focus countries.

Besides, showrooms would be set up for selected consumers items at identified centres on the basis of marketing studies in leased or rental accommodation. The participants will bear the rents/leased charges and full maintenance.

Under the scheme, selected exporters/export promotion councils and trade promotion will be assisted in modernising the identified products as per needs of the targeted markets on country product focus basis as component of the approved project under the scheme.

New Delhi, June 7
The wagon industry is railing through crisis due to lack of orders by the Indian Railways, the trade unions cutting across party lines said, and urged the Prime Minister and the Railway Minister to immediately release orders for the industry.

The trade unions alleged that even though the Railway Budget 2001-02 had approved for 23000 FWUs, the Indian Railways had not released the order for the current year.

The Railway Board is also actively considering slashing down the target of wagon production.

Oriental Bank net fallsNew Delhi, June 7
The Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) has posted a net profit of Rs 203 crore during the financial year 2000-01, a drop from the corresponding figure of Rs 278.62 crore in the previous year. The bank management has attributed the drop in net profit to VRS payments involving an outgo of Rs 16 crore, leave encashment of Rs 31.75 crore and higher provisioning of 108.93
crore. The total business of the bank has increased from Rs 31,604.69 crore in the previous year to Rs 35,935.80 crore while the advances grew by 18.3 per cent against the average industry growth of 16.7 per cent.
TNS

Bank of India net up 45.7 pcDelhi, June 7
Bank of India (BOI) has posted a 45.74 per cent rise in net profit at Rs 251.88 crore for the year ended March 31, 2001 as against Rs 172.82 crore in the corresponding period in the
previous fiscal. The bank has recommended a dividend of 15 per cent on the paid-up capital for the year ended March 31, 2001. Total income for the period registered a rise of 9.89 per cent to stand at Rs 6178.78 crore as compared to Rs 5622.53 crore for the same period last year.
PTI

Singer plans to double its exportChandigarh, June 7
Singer India is going to become a major sourcing point of eight other Singer locations mainly in Asia and Latin America. With
this, Singer Indian will double its exports of sewing machines in the current year from Rs 7.4 crore achieved during the year ended 31st March, 2001. The company posted a net profit of Rs 39.9 lakh as against Rs 51 lakh in the previous year. The profitability was impacted by lower turnover at Rs 128.94 crore during the year 2000-2001 as against Rs 134.37 crore in the previous year. No dividend for the year 2000-2001 has been recommended.
TNS

Tata Telecom records 234 cr turnoverBangalore, June 7
Tata Telecom has achieved a turnover of Rs 234 crore during 2000-2001 as against Rs 182 crore in the previous year. The flagship division of the company, business communications division (BCD) has achieved a turnover of Rs 200 crore as against previous year turnover of Rs 150 crore. BCD has made a profit of Rs 13.34 crore, the loss for the company for the above year was Rs 0.02 crore. The company has posted an overall profit at Rs 14.32 crore.
UNI

Syndicate Bank posts highest profitBangalore, June 7
Syndicate Bank has recorded an highest ever net profit of Rs 235 crore for 2000-01 as against Rs 216 crore last year. Bank Chairman and Managing Director D.T. Pai said the operating profit rose from Rs 281 crore to Rs 298 crore. The net worth of the bank increased from Rs 838 crore to Rs 1010 crore. While the capital adequacy ratio rose from 11.45 per cent to 11.72 per cent, the earnings per share went up from Rs 4.58 to Rs 4.97. The bank declared a dividend of 12 per cent for the year on a par issue, he added.
UNI

Banani net profit falls 6.4 pcKolkata, June 7
Banani Industries Limited announced a 6.40 per cent fall in the net profit to Rs 19.40 crore in the financial year ended March 31, 2001 compared to Rs 21.09 crore in the previous year. The earning per share also dropped to Rs 6.67 from Rs 7.23 in the corresponding period last year, total turnover, however, improved to Rs 292.46 crore from Rs 290.72 crore in the previous year. Depreciation charged for the year was Rs 8.60 crore from Rs 13.17 crore in the last year. The provision for taxation was kept confined to Rs 1.47 crore against Rs 2.75 crore in the previous fiscal.
UNI

Reuters plans new structureLondon, June 7
Global news and information provider Reuters Group Plc today announced a new corporate structure and board changes as part of a wider plan to bring the company closer to its customers. Reuters, the world’s biggest provider of financial news and data, said the restructuring would begin when Tom Glocer succeeded Peter Job as Chief Executive at the end of July and would be mostly complete by the end of the year. The Financial Times reported today that some 500 jobs would be cut. Asked about the report, a Reuters spokesman said: We have said on a number of occasions that as part of the business transformation programme to reposition the company on an internet-based model, staff numbers will be impacted.’’
Reuters

Sommeliers eager to get French wineParis, June 7
France, producer of some of the world’s most highly prized wine, is facing a desperate shortage of wine waiters to market the liquid gold in its restaurants. Aware that wine has become a greater potential source of profit than food, top eateries are eager to get professional sommeliers — as they are called in French — into their dining rooms to help clients make sense of their well-stocked cellars. The trouble is that finding a good sommelier is about as hard as finding a bottle of highly prized 1945 Pomerol.
Reuters

Microsoft sees Asia sales up 27 pcKuala Lumpur, June 7
Microsoft Corp said that the consumer affluence and increased government spending would spur its Asian sales to jump 27 per cent in the financial year ending June 30. “Our fiscal year ends in June, we are growing about 27 per cent this fiscal year and we also grew in excess of 20 per cent last year,’’ Michael Rawding, President Asia at Microsoft, said. Microsoft’s global revenue for nine months ended March 31 rose to $18.84 billion from $17.15 billion in the same period a year ago.
Reuters

Johnson Elec net seen higherHong Kong, June 7
Hong Kong’s Johnson Electric, the world’s second largest maker of micro motors, is expected to report slower net profit growth for the year to March 31 on Friday as it battles a slowdown in its key US and European markets, analysts said. The company, which makes the motors that power car windows, do-it-yourself electric tools and small home appliances, is expected to earn HK$1.258 billion (US$161 million), according to the consensus forecast of 23 analysts polled by Multex Global Estimates.
Reuters

Matsushita, Thomson to tie upTokyo, June 7
Japan’s Matsushita Electric and Thomson Multimedia of France will tie up in development and production of cathode-ray picture tubes, Japan’s major financial daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun reported today. The two companies will establish a joint venture in Europe to develop and manufacture the tubes. The aim of the tie-up is to cut costs by jointly developing and manufacturing such products, the report said.
Reuters

AmartexChandigarh, June 7
Amartex has launched white shirts which are in 100 per cent cotton. The shirts’ designs and stitching is world class using ply yarn which gives extra soothing and cooling effect. These shirts have extra absorbing powers making the person wearing comfortable.
TNS

Baked beansNew Delhi, June 7
Smith and Jones, the international food ingredients brand, has introduced baked beans with English tomato sauce in the Indian market. The Smith and Jones product range is extremely popular in international markets.
TNS

Capital BankChandigarh, June 7
Capital Local Area Bank has offered special rates of interest for senior citizens by offering 0.75 per cent extra on the prevailing fixed deposits rates. For maturity period of 1 year and above, now the senior citizens will get 11 per cent rate of interest.
TNS

Asthma cureNew Delhi, June 7
Asthma patients can now have access to the information about the famous “live fish cure”, thanks to “www.khojhyderabad.com”. The website offers information regarding the exhibition dates, diet, medicines, venue arrangements, time etc. of the Hyderabad based event.
OC

SBP schemeBathinda, June 7
The State Bank of Patiala management has launched ‘Medi-home-flexi-finance’ scheme exclusively for the medical fraternity. Mr J.R. Devgan, General Manager (Operation), said that scheme would meet the aspirations of the doctors. Mr Mahadev Balani, DGM, Zonal office Bathinda. Dr Surjeet Singh Kalra, Chairman, IMA, also attended the function.
TNS

Riken in pactChandigarh, June 7
SafeScrypt — VeriSign in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Nepal — has signed up Riken Instrumentation, Panchkula, as its strategic partner to provide “secure site service” to their clients. With this Riken Instrumentation will provide VeriSign’s secure site services on the Net.
TNS

Fastest PCNew Delhi, June 7
Dell today announced its first Pentium-4-powered desktop tailored specifically for corporate and institutional users. The new system, called OptiPlex GX 400, is the fastest and most powerful desktop PC and is available immediately in India.
UNI